Saturday, July 07, 2007

Are You Still Contagious?

Thursday morning, I noticed that G had a series of red scabby bumps on his left shin.

"What happened?" I exclaimed.

"I don't know," said G. "I think I got bit by some bugs when I was chasing Tater through the bushes at the park the other day."

"Weird," I shrugged. He put some hydrocortizone cream on his leg and went to work.

That night when we got home and he was changing into shorts and a T-shirt, he noticed that the bumps had spread to another spot. Now they were also showing up behind his right knee. This seemed odd to both of us so we dropped everything and when to Willamette Falls Immediate Care where we waited for two and a half hours for them to tell G to use bactine and hydrocortizone creams.

"Will that treat poison oak if that's what I have?" G asked.

"Uh, sure," the Doctor shrugged.

So we went home and he reapplied the hydrocortisone and added some Bactine to the mix and we went to bed in separate places, just in case whatever he has was contagious. The next morning we noticed that the existing spots looked just as irritated as before and that they had multiplied to new areas during the night. Puzzled, he reapplied the creams and we went to work.

During the day, we both did our own research and came to the same conclusion. G probably got into some poison oak or poison ivy. Confident in our self diagnosis, we went to REI for some relief. We collected one of every kind of poison oak/ivy soap and cream they had available. Then we went home and washed the dogs and all the laundry and G. He applied a poison oak/ivy specific gel and headed out to dinner. This morning some of his rash seems to be healing and other parts seem to be spreading so we're not sure what our next step should be. For now we'll try to keep him covered up and cool so it doesn't spread anymore. Whatever we do, I hope it keeps me from getting it!

First Sobriety Test

We've been having issues with the tail lights on our Jetta for quite some time now. They randomly go out for no reason. G will jiggle the wires back there and they'll usually come back on. However, it usually requires someone telling us that it's out and the last couple of times it's been the West Linn Police who have informed us.

Last night was our second experience with this. I happened to be driving. We had gone to sushi in Tualatin and then went across the street for cocktails at Hayden's Lakefront Grill. They happened to have some really great live music in the bar so we stayed and ordered a couple specialty cocktails. G had a couple of the cucumber martinis with cilantro, cucumbers and Rogue's Spruce Gin. (He ordered the second one with less cucumber for some reason.) I had the Pear Cosmopolitan with pear brandy, melon liqueur and white grape juice. It was delicious but strong so i just sipped it while we chatted and listened to the music for about an hour and a half.

On the way home, I slowed down to look at another restaurant we've been talking about visiting and that's when I noticed that there was a car on my back bumper. I started to resume the speed limit and that's when the blue lights began to flash. I was so nervous, I shifted into reverse when I brought the car to a stop. (Did I mention that our tags had expired? Fortunately G had gone to DEQ the day before to renew the registration, but the tags were still in the glove compartment.)

I handed over my license, registration and insurance information and that's when he asked me how much I'd had to drink. I told him I'd had one martini. He then asked how much G had guzzled. G mentioned that he'd had two martinis at home and then two more at the bar. That's when the police officer asked me to step out of the car so he could talk to me away from Gabe to see if I was really the one who reeked of alcohol. Next he asked me if he could check my eyes since I said I'd been drinking. I agreed.

This was the weirdest test ever. It was like being at the eye doctor, but I was standing out on the street. with this cop and the backup he had called in with my knees knocking together. So for a couple of minutes he proceeded to move his laser light back and forth and up and down while getting really close and staring into my eyes while I tried to follow it without moving my head. At one point I got so distracted by his face being so close to mine, I couldn't help but take my eyes off the light.

He let me go with a warning. It took me at least 10 minutes to stop the violent shaking that ensued after he let me go. Let me tell you, it's not easy to drive in that condition.

Now we're trying to decide if we should by a new car or just get the Jetta's electrical problem fixed. We can't afford to keep getting pulled over for the disappearing tail light. Eventually it's going to cost us.